Opinion, Climate : Please don't despair. History shows us we can still save the planet

Par Rebecca Solnit - 4 mn

In response to last week’s IPCC report on the climate crisis – which warned that “unprecedented” changes would occur if global warming increases 1.5C beyond the pre-industrial period – a standup comic I know posted this request on her Facebook: “Damn this latest report about climate change is just terrifying. People that know a lot about this stuff , is there anything to be potentially optimistic about? I think this week I feel even worse than Nov 2016 and I’m really trying to find some hope here.”

A bunch of her friends posted variations on “we’re doomed” and “it’s hopeless”, which perhaps made them feel that they were in charge of one thing in this overwhelming situation, the facts. They weren’t, of course. They were letting understandable grief at the news morph into an assumption that they know just how the future is going to turn out. They don’t.

The future hasn’t already been decided. That is, climate change is an inescapable present and future reality, but the point of the...